One log, two projects

I had this log sitting in my pile for the better part of two years and I’ve always had a fondness for it.. I have no idea what kind of wood it is—“found on the side of the road wood”. It had a really big split going down one side, as you can clearly see.

I took the crack and filled it with a bunch of metal shavings from the other work that I do, and then filled the rest of it with fibreglass resin. I liked the fibreglass resin for this because it has a very warm tone to it that works really well with the colour of this wood. Rather than being simply clear.

Then turned it round and sliced it in half.. One became a bowl/container and the other a little bud vase. I like that you can clearly see light through the crack in the bowl and the vase is neat with its strange angle and size. I like it with a big, sturdy flower like I have shown in the pictures.

All I did was drill a hole and then epoxy a test tube in the hole. Easy enough.

How very nice that you would take what most folks would cast aside and find a way to make a beautiful, useable piece, actually do it twice, which makes it especially nice. Very good work-you inspire others.

Please tell me more about the resin you used. I have SO MUCH cracked wood around here that I simply refuse to write off. I have a piece in the lathe right now that, were I to turn away the cracks, I’d be left with a stick so narrow of girth that nothing would come of it.

This crack might well go all the way to the pith. So what I’d like to do is fill it with something that’ll fill it completely. It looks to me like your pieces got good and filled. I gravitate towards wood fillers, but they just won’t fill it all the way up. Up to now, my usual technique is to drill holes and insert dowels, or cut kerfs and glue shims or splines to keep the cracks from opening further. I’m ready now to try something more sophisticated. I just can’t come to grips with discarding a cracked piece of beautiful wood – it’s too precious in my world.